2024 KOPKIND/CID FILM SEMINAR AND RETREAT NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

Eight filmmakers will be chosen to spend the week of August 4th-11th at Treefrog Farm in Guilford, VT where they will have the opportunity to share their work and support one another. Plan on bringing 30-40 minutes of your work either a work-in-progress or one that you’ve recently completed – for brainstorming, inspiration, problem solving, and deep discussion.

The deadline for application is June 7th. Click here to apply.

NEA BLOG FEATURES CID FILM THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MISS SCOTT

An interview with director NICOLE LONDON was featured in the National Endowment for the Arts' blog on April 17th. In the interview, London discusses her film, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MISS SCOTT, which is currently in post production, as well as her own personal journey as a filmmaker. Click here to read.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MISS SCOTT tells the story of the incredible Hazel Scott: jazz darling, Hollywood star and civil rights pioneer years before the formal civil rights movement began. The first African American with a network TV show, wrongfully accused of Communist sympathies, found her career shattered. Soon after, she was in exile, erased.

THE STRIKE WORLD PREMIERE

THE STRIKE is premiering in late April at Hot Docs film festival in Toronto, Canada. Tickets are available here.

The STRIKE, directed by JoeBill Munõz, and produced by Lucas Guilkey and JoeBill Munõz, tells the story of a generation of California men as they endure decades of solitary confinement and, against all odds, launch the largest hunger strike in US history. Told through intimate interviews and archival verité footage, the film goes beyond making a case against solitary confinement by illuminating the power of organizing this prisoner-led resistance, and in doing so, flipping the true-crime genre on its head.

CHILDREN OF THE VINE NOW STREAMING

After an eighteen month long community screening campaign that started in a church in California and went as far as a theater in South Africa, CHILDREN OF THE VINE was recently licensed by Amazon Prime Video and is now available online. 

CHILDREN OF THE VINE, directed and produced by Brian Lilla, is a deeply unsettling investigation into the controversial herbicide Roundup and its impact on public health. With 3.6 billion pounds of Roundup sprayed annually on crops grown in the U.S., CHILDREN OF THE VINE couldn’t be more timely. At the center of this controversy is glyphosate, the primary active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup. How did glyphosate become so pervasive that it’s in our air, water, soil, food and routinely found in our bodies? And why are countries banning Roundup while U.S. farmers use more of it than any other country in the world?

CANADALAND ANNOUNCES 2024 SLATE

CANADALAND has announced their 2024 slate featuring a packed lineup of new and returning shows.

Over the course of the next nine months, CANADALAND will release a dynamic lineup that includes four new original series (Pretendians, A Field Guide to Gay Animals, The Worst Podcast, The Copernic Affair), the English-language premiere of the Prix Italia-winning Radio France podcast Inside Kabul, new seasons of Commons, CanadaLANDBACK, and The Backbench, and urgent news and insightful analysis from longtime favourites CANADALAND, Short Cuts, Détours, and Wag the Doug.

CANADALAND is an audience-supported, independent news and podcast company that consistently produces some of the best audio journalism in Canada. CANADALAND provide more than 10 million listeners a year with free, high-quality audio content focused on media, news, current affairs, politics, culture, and original investigations.

ALLIANCE AND FATHER FIGURES ACCEPTED INTO JFI RESIDENCY

CID filmmakers Jeremy Borison and Emma Miller's films, ALLIANCE and FATHER FIGURES, were accepted into the Jewish Film Institute's 2024 Filmmaker in Residence program.

The JFI Filmmakers in Residence Program, now in its tenth year, is the only U.S.-based residency program of its kind for independent media projects focused on Jewish-content stories. The program offers a yearlong, intensive artist development initiative that provides creative, marketing, and production support for emerging and established filmmakers whose projects explore the plurality and complexity of Jewish history, life, culture and identity. The Residents will develop and strengthen their in-progress film projects through collaborative workshops and trainings, culminating in an online pitch forum in November 2024.

ALLIANCE: When Yeshiva University’s Pride Alliance sued the institution for denying an LGBTQ group on campus, the university rushed the case to the Supreme Court claiming an attack on their religious freedom. Now the subject of national attention, the students, faculty, and alumni of YU have become a symbol for LGBTQ issues in the Orthodox community.

FATHER FIGURES: When a retired theater director begins posting deeply intimate conversations with his growing collection of ventriloquist’s dummies, his daughter embarks on a quest to understand his motivations and repair a fraught relationship — using puppets.

DESIRE LINES UPDATES

DESIRE LINES, produced and Directed by Jules Rosskam, premiered at Sundance on Jan 22nd. The film received the Jury Award in the NEXT Category.

DESIRE LINES also recently had its International Premiere in Greece at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, where it was selected for the Silver Alexander Award in the Film Forward International Competition.

Domestic screenings of DESIRE LINES resumed this month with Boston’s Wicked Queer Film Festival on April 7th, followed by screenings at the Cleveland International Film Festival. Visit the film's website to stay up-to-date on future screenings.

It’s an open secret among transgender men: after coming out as trans, many of us develop an attraction for other men. DESIRE LINES is a feature-length essay film exploring what’s at stake for everyone when our sexual desires lead to feelings of social and political precarity.

QUAHOGGERS and HELFER AND SPEED Updates

CID filmmaker David Wells' short film QUAHOGGERS: RHODE ISLAND'S ICONIC SHELL-FISHERMEN was accepted into the Endless Summer + Dana Point Film Festival (DPFF), which will be held May 2nd-5th.

QUAHOGGERS follows three of Rhode Island’s legendary shell fishermen as they harvest clams from the mud of Narraganset Bay using only metal rakes and their brute strength- a centuries old craft that evolved as a unique response to Narraganset Bay’s ecosystem.

Another project of Wells', titled HELFER AND SPEED, was selected for the 19th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival, which will be held April 25-28.

HELFER AND SPEED is an intimate vignette exploring the relationship between a 92 year old man and his 66 year old step-son.

WAITER FOR LIFE WORLD PREMIERE

Dan Goldes' new short documentary, WAITER FOR LIFE, premiered April 6th at the Pasadena International Film Festival. 

An intimate look at a group of long-time waiters at San Francisco’s Scoma’s Restaurant, WAITER FOR LIFE pays homage to the American dream: immigrant stories, connections between people, and, of course, food.

WATER FOR LIFE SCREENINGS

WATER FOR LIFE, directed by Will Parinello, and produced by Rick Tejada-Flores and Will Parinello, has received an impact grant from Global GreenGrants Fund. With this support, Water For Life will be screened in the communities where the film takes place - in Chile, El Salvador and Honduras. Below is a schedule for additional screenings throughout April and May:

Isla Verde Caribbean International Film and Environmental Festival - Cuba

Sunday, April 21 – Saturday, April 27 – (screening dates/times TBA)

Ecofalante Environmental Film Festival – São Paulo, Brazil -

May 29 – June 12 - (screening dates/times TBA)

WATER FOR LIFE tells the story of three extraordinary individuals who refused to let government supported industry and transnational corporations take their water and redirect it to mining, hydroelectric projects or large scale agriculture.



23 MILE WORLD PREMIERE AND SCREENINGS

Mitch McCabe's film 23 MILE- a political video diary of Michigan in 2020- made its world premiere at True/False Film Festival in March.

It screened April 13-14 at the Detroit Institute of Arts as part of the Detroit Free Press's FREEP Film Festival. In addition to opening the 27th Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival at Cinemapolis in Ithaca (where McCabe teaches), 23 MILE will have its New York City and West Coast premieres later this spring.

23 MILE is an experimental nonfiction film following Americans during cataclysmic events in the Midwestern swing state of Michigan throughout 2020, painting a portrait of a populace that defies media stereotypes. A document of complex discourse, the film forces viewers to question their own assumptions about race, class, social status and geographical demographics.

THE SECRET SONG COMES TO PBS

After a thrilling run on the festival trail and some special theatrical engagements in locations as far flung as Key West, FL and Christchurch, New Zealand, PBS began its carriage of THE SECRET SONG in March.

With airdates booked on local affiliates in NYC, LA, DC, Baltimore, Portland, and San Francisco, the film will also show nationwide on PBS World in April. It's also available for streaming on PBS.org.

THE SECRET SONG also recently secured educational distribution through GOOD DOCS. 

THE SECRET SONG is an immersive view into the final chapter of Doug Goodkin’s 45-year career, teaching music to children in San Francisco. In what could have been a celebratory victory lap, the veteran teacher finds his efforts to instill community, self-confidence and cultural connectivity interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

DEAR ALANA UPDATES

DEAR ALANA, the limited-series documentary podcast released in August, debuted at #1 on Apple Podcasts in its first week, and was the second most nominated show for the 4th annual Ambie Awards with 4 nominations: Best Society & Culture Podcast, Best Reporting, Best Scriptwriting - Nonfiction, and Best Personal Growth / Spirituality Podcast. It has received critical accolades from The Guardian, People, and the CBC, and was selected by Apple Podcasts as one of its favorite shows of 2023.

The series follows creator and host Simon Kent Fung as he explores the life and tragic death of devout Colorado youth Alana Chen, whose aspiration to become a nun led her to conversion therapy. The show is at once an unravelling mystery and poignant spiritual memoir, unearthing the complicated boundaries between belief, belonging, and betrayal.

CURED UPDATES

During 2023, CURED, directed by Bennett Singer and produced by Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer, was screened at 70 events, in six countries, 19 states, and the District of Columbia. Highlights included a December screening tour in Germany and Poland attended by LGBTQ activists, students, business leaders, and mental health professionals.

On April 10, the American LGBTQ+ Museum and Columbia University co-hosted a screening, discussion, and reception in New York City to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the American Psychiatric Association’s April 1974 decision to remove the diagnosis of homosexuality from its manual of mental disorders.